Lleyton Hewitt is confident he has played enough tennis to fuel his challenge for a shot at an elusive Australian Open crown.
The former world number one claimed his third consecutive Sydney International title on Saturday, but for the second time in as many days his opponent didn’t last the distance.
The 22-year-old Australian was leading 4-3 in the first set with a service break when Spanish world number seven Carlos Moya retired in Saturday’s final with a potentially serious right ankle injury.
That followed his one-set victory in Friday’s semifinal when Dutch opponent Martin Verkerk conceded defeat, complaining that he was feeling dizzy.
Hewitt played a reduced 13 tournaments and 47 matches last year, relying on Grand Slams and Davis Cup matches for Australia to maintain his match fitness and this week he has played just under nine sets in his five matches at the Sydney International.
Asked after Saturday’s final whether he had done enough for potentially seven best-of-five set matches at next week’s opening Grand Slam tournament, Hewitt said: ”It’s fine. I’ve played enough matches over the last two weeks.
”It could be perfect in one way that I’ve gone out there and I’ve had to prepare and warm up and do everything in match conditions.
”But I haven’t actually had to use that full energy that you normally would against a guy like Moya or even Martin Verkerk yesterday [Friday].
”So it could be a blessing and the good thing is I had to face breakpoints out there today.
”So you know I’ve come through a small pressure situation in a match condition, but I didn’t have to waste that extra energy.”
The amount of match preparation is the unknown factor for Hewitt’s assault to become the first home winner of the Australian Open since Mark Edmondson in 1976.
”I’m playing pretty well at the moment. I’ve trained extremely hard and I prepared myself as well as I could for the two Davis Cup ties — especially the final of the Davis Cup,” he said.
”We’ll find out next week [whether it’s enough preparation], but at the moment I feel good, but you can always have some losses out of nowhere … we won’t know that until next week.”
The former Wimbledon and US Open champion has yet to get past the fourth round in seven attempts.
He crashed out to Spaniard Alberto Martin in the first round in 2002 after suffering from chickenpox and then succumbed to Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui in the round of 16 last year, both times when he was top seed.
”The last couple of years it’s been a little bit out of my control. I think I’ve handled the situation of being the number-one seed and pressure on me pretty well, especially in Davis Cup ties. You don’t get much more pressure and expectation than in those matches.” — Sapa-AFP